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A growing number of businesses are bulking up their big data capabilities finds two new studies from technology research firms Gartner and IDC.

In its survey of 199 IT and business leaders, Gartner found that nearly half (48 percent) had invested in big data technology this year, a 3 percent gain compared to last year. Yet in the next two years, twenty-five percent said they plan to invest in big data this year, a considerable drop from 31 percent in 2015.

Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner, noted that while big data spending is up, the analyst group's findings are "showing signs of slowing growth with fewer companies having a future intent to invest," in a statement. "The big issue is not so much big data itself, but rather how it is used. While organizations have understood that big data is not just about a specific technology, they need to avoid thinking about big data as a separate effort."

Gartner also observed that enterprises are generally struggling to get big data projects into production.

Nearly three quarters of those polled by the firm said they had invested or planned to invest in big data, but few have ventured past the pilot stage. Just 15 percent have deployed big data project into production. "One explanation for this is that big data projects appear to be receiving less spending priority than competing IT initiatives," Heudecker added.

Over at IDC, a new forecast points to major gains in the market for big data and business analytics solutions.

The firm's analysts expect the market to grow to $203 billion in 2020, up from $130.1 billion this year. " "This market is forecast to grow 11.3 percent in 2016 after revenues reached $122 billion worldwide in 2015 and is expected to continue at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7 percent through 2020," said Dan Vesset, group vice president of IDC's Analytics and Information Management practice, in prepared remarks.

Banks are spending the most on big data and business analytics solutions, to the tune of nearly $17 billion this year, according to IDC. Manufacturers manufacturing, government agencies and professional services companies are also among this year's big spenders.

Naturally, large enterprises (500 employees and up) are leading the charge. They are expected to generate the majority of big data and business analytics revenues ($154 billion) in 2020. But the world's small and midsized businesses are also getting in on the act, generating nearly a quarter of all revenues.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.